A scientist, an Enlightenment philosopher, and one of the most accomplished and complicated personalities in American history, Thomas Jefferson authored the Declaration of Independence and served his country as statesman, diplomat, and president. In 1803, during his first term as president, he orchestrated the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States and established the nation as a continental power. This expansion, more than any other, forced politicians to confront the growing slave economy, and Jefferson, who like many of the early American presidents held slaves, wrestled with the rift between his philosophical beliefs and the country’s dependence on slavery. John Adams, who served as the American minister to England when Jefferson served as the American minister to France, hosted his friend in the spring of 1786, when both of them were more than a decade away from becoming president. During the visit, Adams suggested that Jefferson pose for the Boston-born artist Mather Brown, who created this portrait—the earliest known likeness of Jefferson.